In the U.S., our public domain is a sorry shadow of what it could be. Since the 20-year retroactive extension went into effect, no published works have entered the public domain through copyright expiration. We can point to the abstract value of the public domain, but we cannot even imagine what might have come of some 17 years of experimentation in precisely the era where creation and publishing tools are more accessible than ever.

We lose the creativity that would take the form of building on top of works in the public domain. We lose access to works that have been orphaned, with no clear owner but a cloud of legal uncertainty that makes preservation too risky.